The Florida Gators football team has been begging for the fans to come out to the Swamp and on Saturday, head coach Jim McElwain and the Gators received the support they’ve been waiting for.
2017 running back Adarius Lemons (6-1, 195, Clearwater, FL High) was in the Swamp on Saturday and, while he was taken aback by the atmosphere, he also enjoyed something else on campus.
“It was good, it was loud and I liked the nice atmosphere,” Lemons said of his Florida visit. “My favorite part of the visit was the indoor practice facility. When the coaches took me over there I was like ‘wow’, it was nice. I liked it a lot. It was really nice.”
McElwain and the rest of the Florida Gators football staff tried to talk to every prospect that was on campus and that included a short conversation with Lemons.
“Coach McElwain just talked to me a little bit after the game,” he said. “He just told me to keep working but we didn’t get to have a long conversation. I shook hands with Coach [Tim] Skipper and he told me to stay in touch with him.”
McElwain’s support staff takes on a big role on game days, as they do a lot of the recruiting, and on Saturday that meant Marquell Blackwell was big in talking to Lemons.
“I talked to Coach Blackwell the most out of all of the coaches,” Lemons said. “Coach Blackwell said that they really want me here and that they want me to play for the University of Florida. He said to keep working and stay on my grind.”
When Lemons was offered last week he told Gator Country that he was interested to see what the Florida Gators offense would look like and after watching the game he came away impressed.
“I honestly liked the offense, the offense was great,” he said. “It’s similar to what we run in high school so if I was to commit and come to Florida then I would come in knowing some things. I know that system so I would have to learn some things, but I would know some things.”
Heading into the visit to see the Florida Gators football team, Lemons had the Gators on top and this visit didn’t change that.
“I liked the energy in the Swamp, everyone was loud,” Lemons said. “Everyone was telling me about the tradition at Florida and I liked it. Florida is still my leader and this visit helped that.”
One thing this visit did do to help Florida was that Lemons’ grandmother was able to see Florida for herself and she was impressed by what she saw.
“My grandma said she liked the visit and the indoor practice facility,” he said. “She said she wouldn’t mind coming up there and even my grandma said she liked the atmosphere. So when she says that then it means it’s a good thing.”
INSIDERS TAKE: Lemons is putting up good numbers as a junior and he’s showing that he’s a physical back with good speed for his size. Lemons doesn’t want to rush a decision so the Florida Gators recruiting efforts will have to continue to be strong.